


We All Know How This Ends

by CheesyNinja4ever



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/M, Forbidden Love, M/M, Secrets, Things are not what they seem
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-13
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-21 11:15:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 2,888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30020943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CheesyNinja4ever/pseuds/CheesyNinja4ever
Summary: A young farmer who wants to be a knight. A crafty kidnapper planning to start a war. A picture-perfect princess falling into the wrong clutches. A loyal, up-beat court jester lending the knight a helping hand. A wise king trying to do the best for his kingdom. A shy servant hiding in the shadows. We all know how this ends.Only everybody might be more than they seem and could just be hiding secrets that could even destroy a kingdom. "We all know how this ends," people may claim, but nobody does.





	1. The False End

**Lightbringer, lightbringer**

**Chasing a dream**

**Don’t you know that things**

**Aren’t what they seem?**

* * *

I almost laughed at this pitiful excuse of a story that I would tell my kids when I grew up _. “We all know how this ends,” I would say, “There was a beautiful princess kidnapped by the evil Shadow Wolf. The frantic king comes in, asking for somebody, anybody, to save his precious daughter. Then I come in, the little farmer boy who wants to be a knight. The jester comes with me, as the bumbling side-kick. We all live happily ever after as the Shadow Wolf is safely locked up in the dungeon!” They would clap and cheer as my wife, the princess whose life I saved, kissed me on my cheek. They would call me the Lightbringer, banisher of the evil Shadow Wolf! _ I smiled as the shy servant darted into the room, saying that the Shadow Wolf was now locked up in the dungeon. “Good riddance!” the king laughed, patting me on my back, “Will you take my daughter’s hand in marriage, as a reward for saving her life?”

“It would be my honour to marry your daughter, your royal highness!” I declared, bowing at his feet. 

“No, the honour will be mine to have you as my son-in-law,” he replied, making me beam with pride.

“You can call me the Lightbringer,” I declared, with as much courage as I could muster. 

“Absolutely!” the king agreed, obviously pleased by my words. “The wedding shall be next month! It will be the grandest there ever was!” I danced all night with the princess I had saved from the foolish Shadow Wolf, daydreaming about the story that I would tell my kids one day in the future. I had decided it would be like a fairytale, with the Shadow Wolf as the easily defeated dragon, me as the charming knight and the princess as the damsel in distress. 

I danced happily, with no care in the world. At the end of the night, I got down on one knee and asked the princess, who looked absolutely stunning in her red ball gown a question. “Dear princess Bellatora,” I asked, holding up a diamond ring, “Will you marry me?” Time seemed to stand still as I waited for her answer. At last, I got my response.

“Yes!” she laughed, a wide smile forming on her face. In just that short amount of time, I had gone from some random farmer boy to the Lightbringer, future king of Steriate. At that moment I felt like nothing would ever go wrong again, because I had found my happily ever after.


	2. The Deception

**Shadow Wolf, Shadow Wolf**

**Ready for war**

**Have you forgotten**

**Who you were before?**

* * *

I almost laughed at how foolish everybody was as I sat in the cold, dusty prison cell. It was just so easy to fool them all. The clueless henchman had done his job well, rescuing the princess like he was meant to. The king had also played his role as the scheming villain he was. Now, I was finally inside of the castle, the cunning hero infiltrating the villain base. Now that I was inside the castle, I was ready for the war I was going to create. All that was left for me to do was escape this dungeon and the rest would be easy. Everybody was completely clueless about my plans, which made everything unbelievably cliched. 

When people told stories about me in the future after I had saved the kingdom, I would be the cool, cunning anti-hero that easily infiltrated the enemy base. That stupid “Lightbringer” would be the bumbling, idiotic henchman who was from a long line of people who had supported the enemies. That easily kidnapped princess would only show up in the story as the bait, the pretty, naive girl who didn’t know her actions would destroy the entire kingdom. The king would be made into the perfect villain, his evil, selfishness becoming his ultimate downfall. I sighed happily as I sat on my bed, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. 

Finally, the cell door opened. I nodded at my spy, and whispered “Leave before you get caught. They will not take long to notice that I’m missing.” My spy nodded, quickly disappearing into the shadows. I wasted no time, immediately dashing out of the dungeon and hiding in the first room I saw. Even as my heart was pounding and I had trouble catching my breath, I still staggered through the room, trying to find clothes I could use to disguise myself. “We all know how this ends, you villainous fools,” I whispered as I put on some abandoned clothes I had found in one of the corners of the room. “We all know how this ends.”

  
With my disguise complete, I prepared myself for the war I would bring to this land. The king and his idiotic henchmen had no idea what was coming for them. I snuck into the ballroom just in time to see “Lightbringer” propose to the princess and her to say yes.  _ Well, this is inconvenient. Should have seen that one coming.  _ I quietly shook my head at the sight of the naive little girl putting the engagement ring on her finger, unaware that she had helped me into the castle. As everybody clapped for the newly engaged couple I wished that I could wipe those stupid grins off of everybody’s faces right then and there. Instead, I stayed true to my hard-earned name and hid in the shadows, waiting for the perfect time to strike.


	3. Hidden Warriors

**Princess, princess**

**Dancing all night**

**Will you remember**

**That you want to fight?**

* * *

I didn’t want to marry that wannabe knight, but it was all part of the grand plan. Get captured by the Shadow Wolf, get rescued by some knight or another, throw the Shadow Wolf in the castle dungeon where he belonged, and become queen by marrying my “saviour”. It was simple and practically flawless. I even made sure that my closest and most trusted ally, Ballatro the court jester, would be there as the knight’s sidekick, making sure that everything went as planned. I had danced all night in an uncomfortable ball gown just to get him to marry me. As expected, my ally’s subtle nudging for him to do it had paid off. I sent a mental thank you to my deceased mother as I put on the engagement ring, smiling as I dreamt of wearing the crown of a queen. Unfortunately, to rule the kingdom the way I wanted to, the “Lightbringer'' had to have a little “accident” first. 

_ We know how this ends. The Shadow Wolf will be executed for his crimes. I am sure he would lose his head if I told everybody all the horrible, unspeakable things he did to me. Too bad even he does not know all the things he did to me, but who believes a liar and a criminal? The Lightbringer will have a terrible accident that will make me refuse to take another husband in his memory. I have the king wrapped around my little finger, his secret is something he never wants others to know. He knows that if he refuses to step down from the throne the second that I want to be queen, he will suffer the same fate that I have planned for the Shadow Wolf. _

During the ball, there was a time when I had forgotten my plan. I had been distracted by the handsome, stunning face of the person I only ever dared love in secret. If anybody else asked, I would claim that I had danced with him simply because he had helped the Lightbringer save me from the Shadow Wolf. In truth, during the brief moments that I was dancing with Ballatro, I felt like just another girl dancing with their crush. That perfect illusion had crumbled away the moment I switched partners. I knew what I had to do for my kingdom and for my secret lover. 

That night, I sneaked out of my bedroom window and darted into Ballatro’s room. “Hey, handsome,” I laughed, trying to sound as carefree as I did when we were younger, “We need to talk.”

“About your future husband?” he teased, kissing my forehead, “Why do I feel like you don’t love him?” I laughed, pushing my plans of murder and betrayal to the back of my mind. 

“You read my mind, Ballatro,” I whispered. “I don’t know how you do it.”


	4. Darkness Rising

**Jester, jester**

**Smiling all day**

**When darkness rises**

**Will you choose to stay?**

* * *

I missed the good old days when my relationship with Bellatora did not make me feel so torn. Once, loving Bellatora just meant passing coded messages and winking at each other. Now, it meant bribing servants to stay silent, sneaking into each other’s rooms at night and kissing in secret. I had always been loyal to the royal family, and despite my crush on Bellatora, I was still a rule follower at heart. I sighed, looking my only love in her eyes. “Bellatora,” I whispered, “We all know how this ends. Eventually, we’ll be found out and I’ll be executed for daring to have a secret love life with the future queen!” It felt like darkness was rising around us, suffocating us as it whispered all the things that could go wrong

“Don’t worry, Ballatro,” she laughed, trying to comfort herself as well as me. “I have a foolproof plan.” 

“If you say so, sweetheart,” I sighed.  _ If this love is foolish, then I will rather die as a happy fool than as a miserable genius. _

“Will you help me?” she asked nervously. I quickly nodded, ready to do her bidding if it meant being with her. 

“No matter what darkness rises from this relationship that we have, I will stay,” I promised. 

“Thank you,” she sighed, her voice dropping back into a whisper. “I knew I could trust you.” As we quietly danced through the room, she whispered her plan in my ear. I shuddered at the dark implications of her words, but I stayed true to my promise. 

Around an hour before the usual time people started waking up, we separated again. She snuck back to her own room and I made sure to get at least a bit of sleep before I started my day. I paid no attention to the hole in my heart that was only ever filled by Bellatora. I knew that I probably would never know the full story about what was happening, but nobody ever knew the full story.  _ There were likely going to be a thousand different stories about what happened when this all ends, all of them are sure to be at least partly wrong. “We all know how this ends,” they would say, even though nobody ever does. _ I barely got any sleep before the waking bell started chiming, telling everybody to get ready for the day ahead of them. Pushing away my dark, brooding thoughts, I changed into my jester’s outfit and shifted my facial expressions into a familiar fake smile, which I had practiced so often that even I could barely tell that It was not real.


	5. The Darker Deception

**Imposter, imposter**

**Who is not what others see**

**Do you fear the ghost**

**Of the king you pretend to be?**

* * *

I woke up to the sound of the waking bell ringing. The nightmare was still fresh in my mind.  _ My trembling hand pouring the poison into the king’s drink before our private meeting, his cup falling to the ground, shattering apart and spilling the remaining wine, the thump of his dead body as it slid off of his chair.  _ “We all know how this ends,” his ghost was whispering to me, “There is no happy ending for a murderer like you.” I knew seeing dead people and hearing them talking to you usually meant that you were crazy, but I already knew I was crazy before I started seeing a dead king’s ghost. I was crazy to let myself be manipulated by the scheming, crafty princess. The Lightbringer and the Shadow Wolf are both as foolish as I was once, letting themselves be used to help her complete her goal. I am the only fool out of the three of us who knows that I was tried, but it’s too late for me to turn back. I was lucky enough to be the only one to understand my role in her plan, allowing me to convince her to keep me alive. 

As I sat on the throne and prepared for the wedding, I could see the ghost watching me in the corner of the room, waiting for me to join him. “Sir!” a young servant boy cried, breaking me out of my trance, “The Shadow Wolf has escaped!”  _ Good job, David. You managed to escape from a trap you didn’t even know you were in.  _

“What are you waiting for!” I yelled, hiding my relief behind a mask of fury. “Find him!”  _ Good luck, David. Stay safe for me.  _ After everybody had left in search of the Shadow Wolf, I went to search for David. I was sure that no matter what disguise he wore, I would be able to recognise him. It took me half of the day, but I finally found him. I held back my laughter when I saw him dressed up as one of the servant boys, completely hidden to everybody but me. “You!” I growled. “You are coming with me!” David followed me without question, still perfectly playing his role. As soon as we were alone in my room, he pointed a knife to my neck. 

“You may think you are smart, you fool of a king.” he whispered, “But I am here to start a war, no matter the cost. Your destructive plans will never become reality.”

“W-what plans?” I stammered, afraid that he had uncovered the truth. 

“Your plans to exterminate anybody in poverty!” he yelled, forgetting where he was. Luckly, I knew for a fact that nobody would be near enough to hear him.  _ You don’t know. You really don’t know! _

“David,” I whispered, “Why would you think I would do that?”


	6. Unseen Eyes Watching

**Servant, servant**

**Seeing it all**

**Will you save the kingdom**

**Or just let it fall?**

* * *

I knew what was going on in the castle, something few others that had gotten tangled into this mess had achieved. I knew that the farmer-turned-knight was delusional, completely unaware of the dark secrets in this castle’s walls. I was there, lurking in the shadows as Princess Bellatora kissed the court jester, Ballatro, under the blooming branches of a cherry blossom tree. I watched as a false king strode confidently onto the throne, unaware that I saw right through his deception. The entire time, I had said nothing and done nothing. Now the kingdom was in danger and I had to choose between continuing to do nothing and watching my home crumble and fall. I paced back and forth through the hallway, making my decision. A group of soldiers pushed past me, desperate to find the Shadow Wolf. I already knew that he was in the same room as the imposter king. I made my choice, choosing the best side. 

I ran through the castle, looking for the Lightbringer. As soon as I saw him, I grabbed his hand and begged, ‘Please listen! Things aren’t what they seem! Just listen and you can stop the kingdom from falling into chaos!” 

“Ok. You can trust me. I’m the Lightbringer, saviour of all!” he laughed, still completely oblivious to his future wife’s dark plans. To save the kingdom, I had to do whatever was necessary to defeat the false king. If it meant destroying the innocence of a delusional farmer boy, then I would happily accept that cost. “Listen closely,” I began, “I will tell you the truth about what is happening in this land, well as much as I know about it anyways.” 

I told him everything I knew, the truth about the “king”. Part of me wanted to curl up and cry myself to sleep when I saw his inner child wither away and die as I told him my story, but I stayed strong for my kingdom. I had covered my ears, closed my eyes and kept my mouth shut for too long, and now I had to pay my debt to the kingdom. I couldn’t care less about who was on the throne, as long as my kingdom was safe. It had taken me in when I was at my lowest point and given me a life I once couldn’t even dream of.

_ A kind guard letting me through the border. A poor family using their already low amount of money to keep me alive. A soft-hearted knight sneaking me into the castle and helping me get a job as a servant boy.  _ “This is for you,” I whispered so quietly that I couldn’t even hear myself say it. “This is all for you.” I took a key from my pocket and gave it to the Lightbringer. “This will let you into any room in the castle. Use it well, Lightbringer.”  _ I have done everything I can, now it’s all up to you. _


End file.
